No Religious Liberty For You (Continued)

The Obama Administration announced late Friday that they will go ahead with rules (not legislation, mind you; all that constitutional separation of powers stuff is so old fashioned) that will force all employers and universities that offer insurance to cover contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

Officials at the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury today took the next step in the Obama administration’s effort to ensure women access to recommended preventive services while respecting religious liberty.  The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today outlines draft proposals to implement the policy announced by President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Feb. 10, 2012. This policy will provide women with access to recommended preventive services including contraceptives without cost sharing, while ensuring that non-profit religious organizations are not forced to pay for, provide, or facilitate the provision of any contraceptive service they object to on religious grounds.
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“The President’s policy respects religious liberty and makes free preventive services available to women,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Today’s announcement is the next step toward fulfilling that commitment.” 

As usual with the Obama Administration, that's a lie.

[B]y drawing a distinction between actual churches and church-operated businesses like hospitals and schools, the administration effectively appropriated for itself the power to determine what constitutes ministry.

So these employers will still have to provide the health insurance, and the health insurance must cover the contraception and abortifacients.  

The White House apparently wants to pretend that the funds for these outlays will come off of the Unobtanium Tree, where insurers find money to cover mandates. This exposes once again a stunning ignorance of risk pools and how costs are passed along to consumers. 

Let’s just take this one step at a time.  

Where do insurers get money to pay claims? They collect premiums and co-pays from the insured group or risk pool.  No matter what the Obama administration wants to say now, the money that will cover those contraception costs will come from the religious organizations that must now by law buy that insurance and pay those premiums.  Their religious doctrines have long-standing prohibitions against participating in contraception and abortion, and nothing in this “accommodation” changes the fact that the government is now forcing them to both fund and facilitate access to products and services that offend their practice of religion. Basically, the Obama administration told religious organizations to stop complaining and get in line.  This “accommodation” only attempts to accommodate Obama’s political standing and nothing more.

But, hey, they can always refuse to provide insurance at all, pay a fine under the Obamacare law and dump their employees onto Federally provided insurance, right?

Great.  So then, people who are religiously opposed to contraception and abortion still have to pay for both with their taxes.  See how that works?

No matter how you slice it, Pres Obama's rules violate religious people's right of conscience.  But this isn't just about religious liberty, and we religious people shouldn't only argue on religious grounds.

This is about liberty in general.  The government has no right to force anyone, religious or not, to offer any coverage at all.

If employers think they need to offer certain coverage to their employees to attract the best workers, they have the right to do so.  If employees prefer to choose certain employers because of the coverage they offer, they have the right to do so.  But government has no right to interfere in those transactions.

Christians; if you don't yet understand why we should all oppose bloated, morbidly obese government, I don't know what it'll take.